Rich queue up to invest tax windfall

MPs and peers will this week call for an urgent inquiry into a tax break that will allow a 40 per cent discount on fine wines and second homes.

Vintage wine retailers have reported a huge surge in demand ahead of new rules permitting pensions to be invested in wine, property and classic cars.

The rule change, set to come into effect in April, will allow £215,000 to be put into Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs), which can include fine art or wine.

"Unless this nonsense is stopped Gordon Brown will be the best salesmen the fine wine merchants and estate agents have ever had. There will be a feeding frenzy at the wilder fringes of the property market," said Lord Oakeshott, a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman. "It will cost billions in tax relief we can't afford."